Of taxis, pharaohs, cupcakes and Eid!

Another update, wahoo! This time not as picture heavy. The past two days basically just consisted of long extended periods of survival Arabic. HOWEVER, after long strenuous days of being on campus for long periods of time sitting in one room... I "graduated" from Pre-Semester Survival Arabic! Mumtaz!

The dinner group at Goal with our Waiter

On Saturday night, we went out to eat with a group, and happened to find a place called "Goal" which is apparently supposed to be this Italian and Egyptian bar sort of deal. We actually got to use our Arabic skills (or lack thereof) to order our food! The waiter we had was a very nice and humorous man, and when we tried to order in Arabic, and were saying things wrong, he'd lean forward, motion to come in closer and pronounce it with is syllable by syllable. He was very patient and helpful! If we didn't know the words for what we wanted to order in Arabic, he'd tell us! He also tried to learn all of our names, which was awesome! I had a delicious strawberry milkshake with bits of strawberries in it after my meal (which was alright - I had some sort of seasoned/sauced grilled chicken which I wasn't a big fan of...). The Egyptians certainly know how to do their drinks and deserts!

I also have began to notice more and more how much a shisha (or a hookah) plays in Egyptian life. It's not something I ever intend to try and have no desire to do so, but people sell them on the streets, and it's fairly a common thing to order a shisha before or after your meal. Goal was practically full of shisha smoke the further along the meal we got.

Not a big fan of the idea... let's just say that.

Today was our first day off since we've gotten here, really, now that survival Arabic is over. I got to sleep in, which was FANTASTIC, and we ended up getting taxis to go to the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square! It was my first time ever in a cab, and nonetheless in a cab where I had to make sure the meter was on and that it worked and we wouldn't be charged an arm and a leg. Luckily we had a very nice cabbie the first time, who actually spoke more English than we thought. It was a rather pleasant ride there! Nick, Miriam and I took one cab, and Ashley and Cat took another. When us three got to the museum, an employee pulled us aside and gave us some pointers. He said that because of it being Eid-el-Fitr (the three day celebration of the ending of Ramadan and feasting) the museum was going to close earlier than normal so we should get single priced tickets with our student I.D.s (basically 30 L.E., which is super cheap in U.S.!) at 1:30 after groups go through and then stay until they closed things off. Until then, however, he lead us across the street to a bazaar that is government approved where he sells things for the museum.

Of course, Khan el Khalili (another very popular bazaar) would be cheaper, but we aren't doing that for a little while because it's best to do it at night. But still, I got a few gifts for home and a cute little tiny bag that my camera fits into nice and snug. Of course, I realized after the fact that the strap is a little broken, but I can get it fixed, and a few beads are missing.

Now I know! Everything is a learning experience right now! :) 

In the Egyptian museum, pictures aren't allowed unfortunately. And since it was closing early, we didn't have nearly enough time to see everything. I did get to go in through the majority of the first floor and then we found King Tutankhamon's room with all of his burial stuff, and even the air conditioned room with two of his coffins and his infamous mask! No pictures, but it's still amazing to say that I was there, and I saw it with my own eyes. We plan on going back when the hours aren't so constricted and paying the extra 20 L.E. to go into the mummy room!

When we got back to Zamalek via cab (this time our cabbie may have gotten a little lost and stopped to ask the police/guards at embassies every corner for directions) we chatted in the garden with a large group of people and had fun playing some card games before dinner, and then we ordered cupcakes from Nola! Best cupcake I've ever had, hands down. It was peanut butter and chocolate. I plan on trying the banana kind next time. Thank god everything Cairo delivers! (And I mean EVERYTHING.)

Tomorrow we plan to go to Alpha mart if it's open (being Eid and all...) and then hit up City Stars Mall (though it's going to be super expensive because it's Westernized out the wazoo) near the Heliopolis area of Cairo and the Airport! Then, I may not update for a while, considering at midnight we leave to go to the airport to fly to Luxor for a cruise on the Nile! I won't have my computer, but I'll have my iPod and will be able to update facebook and keep in contact if I keep that as charged as I possibly can!

Pyramids of Giza!

So today was my first official weekend in Egypt. In this country, weekends consist of instead of Friday nights, Sat-Sun, we have Thursday nights, Friday & Saturday. I really only truly had today off, as tomorrow I have to go back to Campus for a five hour, long and bound to be frustrating session of survival arabic. Regardless, today I got to sleep in a little, until around 8:30 am (east coasters, that's 2:30 am for you!) and then got ready to head to the Pyramids of Giza! There was no way I could pass this up, and paying L.E. 170 (about $28 U.S.) for lunch, and entry into the Pyramids of Giza area & Sphinx was quite frankly, a deal. So basically we got in line for admission tickets for inside the pyramids.

Being an anthropology major who intends to focus on archaeology, and having watched things like Chasing Mummies, The Mummy, Indiana Jones, and Atlantis ever since I was little, there was no way I could pass this up. It was L.E. 50 to enter the Great Pyramid, and L.E. 15 to enter the third pyramid, Menkaure's pyramid. We were told that Menkaure's pyramid is far more interesting to go into because it has all these stories about Pharaoh Menkaure (or Mycerinus) like the original Cinderella (apparently) and his love life and autobiography. Honestly? It wasn't nearly as impressive as the Great Pyramid. We went climbed down inside the chamber, and had to duck the entire time. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the inside as cameras weren't allowed. I do have photos of the outsides of the pyramids and the Sphinx though.

Anyway. We climbed down into it, and I thought that was bad. When I came back outside into the suprisingly cooler air, we were approached and attacked again by aggressive vendors. Yeah. From the moment you walk into the Giza area, vendors will approach you and try to push things into your hands and get you to pay for them. Sometimes they offer ridiculous prices, and they won't let you go until you give them the amount of money they need. They are very aggressive and very persistent! They even picked up a girl and put her on a camel for a camel ride without really considering that she didn't want to!

This is where the survival arabic comes in handy! Saying "La shukran" which means no thank you, tends to get rid of them if you are very firm and persistent with them as well. Though, I bet we'll go back at some point when there aren't as many of us going (I'd like to go inside the pyramids again when it's not so much of a big group!), and then I'll test out my bartering skills. Some of the stuff they were selling in the panorama viewing area of the pyramids really was pretty! Like the scarfs and stuff. I also pretended I was digging in the sand with my fedora and trowel. So that was pretty nifty!

Okay, so after fighting off all sorts of people trying to sell everything and anything to us, around 10 or 12 of us had also paid to go inside the Great Pyramid. That was actually the highlight! It's of course, a lot bigger than Menkaure's pyramid, and even though there weren't any stories to tell with it, it was more rewarding. Instead of climbing down and ducking the entire way, you had to climb up. Sections of the part where we had to duck didn't have lights to guide us, so you had to be really careful, and the steps weren't really steps - they were boards with a raised strip of wood to make a sort of footing on the plank, and handrails. Exactly like how you see on TV except with less lighting... they aren't kidding when they say it's a huge physical feat. You climbed up into another section where you could stand, but it was so steep and far up...

 

I thought I wasn't going to make it. I was literally covered in sweat, and when I got to a platform, I just bent over and tried to catch my breath, which seemed to get caught in my throat. I thought that I still had more to go up, and everyone else just continued to go through the opening off to my side, so once I thought, you know what, I will only do this once so who cares if I can't breathe for five minutes? And I went through...

To find out that this was the room with the tomb for the sarcophagus, and that it was the top! I did it! We all made it! It was really amazing. I wish I could've gotten pictures in there too. It was nearly pitch black, with just a few lights off to the sides. Someone took a picture with their cellphone of the group in front of and behind the tomb and then we climbed our way back down and got to head over to the Sphinx!

Unfortunately, my legs felt like complete and total jello and I could barely walk by the time I got outside the pyramid again, so as much as I wanted to walk into the Sphinx area, I just couldn't. We also didn't have enough time, as there was lunch now!

After lunch, we headed back to Zamalek, and I had a nice evening in relaxing and getting ready for five hours of Arabic tomorrow. I'm surprisingly really catching on more than I thought I would pick up a language! I suppose it's because I'm learning speaking more than anything and I'm in an area where I can use it a lot and have to use it!

Tomorrow is weekend for those of our group not in Survival Arabic, so they get to sleep in. I'll get to sleep in for a little, but I'm really not ready for five hours of arabic...

At least in four days, I depart for Luxor and Aswan for Eid! And then classes begin!

Izzay a 'ool...?

Another two days has come and gone here in the beautiful city of Cairo! Here's the lo-down on what's been happening.

Wednesday, August 24th was a pretty hectic day. I have gotten up at 6:20 (or well... tried, sometimes my alarm doesn't do its job and I wake up twenty minutes later!) every day so far since being here. We have to catch the 7:40 bus from Zamalek to New Cairo, which takes us to the campus in about 45 minutes. We end up getting there at around 8:20-8:30 depending on traffic, whereupon we wander around campus for a little, or sit outside. Yesterday, we had lectures in the morning about Egypt's political and social situations both before and after the January 28th Revolution, as well as what the American Embassy can do for us if we get into trouble or need help. I was so exhausted yesterday morning (which is strange because I went to bed at 12:30, and generally I'm alright with that sort of thing, I mean, the previous night I hadn't gone to bed until 2:00 am, and I was fine then!) that by the start of the second lecture on the embassy, I could barely keep my eyes open.

We were told that we aren't allowed to take pictures of governmental buildings, or anything outside them, or anything to do with the Egyptian military and that Americans who didn't know that have gotten put in jail for things like that and not knowing local law (which there really isn't, it's all still basically central, authoritarian government). Kind of scared me out of taking pictures of random pretty looking buildings until I know what they are. Of course, I do have pictures of the military on Tahrir Square from inside our bus. Whoops! c: Oh well!

Then after that we headed towards Survival Arabic, which is going frustratingly slow at some points, and then very well at others. I'm catching on well on the basic phrases, but each time we add more phrases, I get stuck and confused and have to think really hard about what's going on and what I need to say. But I'm getting there. I can hold a basic conversation, I know how to say and read numbers in Arabic... The title of this blog actually means "How do you say...?" in Egyptian colloquial, which is what I'm learning. After that, we were supposed to go back to Zamalek and then go on a trip to the Bazaar but I was far too tired, and super elated that we were getting back to the dorms before 9:00! We got back actually rather early, ordered dinner just around Iftar, which was a mistake because everyone was closed eating dinner and breaking the Ramadan fast themselves, but overall it was fun. There are seven of us here from Gettysburg and five or six of us live in Zamalek, I think?

Regardless. I got to go upstairs and skype Laura (my roommate) and Alex (other partner in crime), which was tons of fun because I miss them a bunch. They then left to go to Gettysburg's class of 2015 opening convocation ceremony, which started at four pm eastern time. So I was like, oh okay, and then I discovered that we could watch convocation via live streaming! So the gburgians over here in the girls side of Zamalek watched opening convocation live (go JMR!) and I got to see Gettysburg from across the great big pond and the continent of Africa.

Today, August 25th, was very much like yesterday; we had lectures on more facts about Egypt, and then a short lecture about how to face homesickness and adapt to a new society. I am a little bit homesick, but I don't think it's really hit me yet that I'm not just visiting this country for two weeks and then going back to Gettysburg - and that I'm actually LIVING here for an entire semester. I suppose it will when my roommate moves in, and when classes start up on September 4th. I think being able to skype home will make it easier. After the lectures, we had a slightly longer arabic session today. It was long, and tiring, and I was exhausted, but shortly after, we all met up and left to go to the busses back to Zamalek.

When we realized that first year orientation for AUC was also going on. There was a student life fair for clubs and information desks and stuff. The first year class for AUC's theme was beach and lifeguarding and stuff. And AUC has lots of fountains just chilling all over campus. There's a huge area with about eight of them planted into the ground, like those ones that kids run through in like parks and strip mall areas and stuff. When we came out, we spied Nick, who was drenched to the bone.

Turns out, AUC FYE staff likes throwing people in the fountains and dumping water all over them and playing in said fountains. They caught another Gettysburgian and literally picked him up, grabbed his feet and his arms, put him on top of the gargling fountain spout, and dumped buckets of water over him. A guy came over to me and asked if we wanted to join the fun, and I said, "No, I have electronics with me, I'm okay." And he said, "Come on, put your stuff down and go!"

But we all shook our heads. We had a forty five minute bus ride to take back to Zamalek! There's no way we were getting soaked wearing jeans and riding on the bus like that. So we started to walk away, almost got caught again (another girl in our group walking with us DID get dragged off...) and just when we stopped and thought we were safe, we saw an FYE "lifeguard" coming at us.

He blew his whistle. And before we knew it, we had to run to the gate to escape them from dragging us into the fountains! After he blew the whistle, more came after us, and it was actually exhilirating, if not kind of terrifying. We made it to the gate, huffing and puffing, and almost got caught several times because of our backpacks.

But alas, we were dry.

Needless to say, AUC certainly does seem to have more fun during their orientation than at Gettysburg's! And they don't care if you're upperclassmen or firsties...

Another thing I've learned?

Egyptians just don't give up!

Ana amrekiah!

I barely have had any time to update this since I've gotten here on Sunday afternoon (early Sunday morning for all you east coasters!). The plane rides were long and exhausting. I had a flight from BWI to JFK, JFK to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Cairo. Lots of little layovers. Lots of little periods of time to freak out and mooch off free wifi to chat to home. On the flight from BWI to JFK, the plane was really small, and it only took about half an hour. I sat across the aisle from a man from Egypt himself (small world!) and a woman who is an anthropologist and got her doctorate from Cairo! Very, very small world! They were very nice and very helpful!

Flight from JFK to Amsterdam was long! I slept through almost all of the three in-flight movies, restlessly, however. Thankfully I had my own pillow from home, which came in handy for not only storing my fedora and teddy bear (because yes!), but for leaning up against the plane window! I arrived at the Amsterdam airport at 5:20 in the morning their time, and was completely exhausted. I wandered around, and almost panicked because BWI had told me I would need to pick up my baggage before going through customs, and then check in again. And when my baggage didn't show up, I had to find my way around a huge deserted airport (hardly anyone works at 5:20 in the morning!) and make my way to the Delta/KLM desk to find out that my luggage was already put through to Cairo without me needing to do anything. At least the Dutch are super dooper nice with confused and jet-lagged Americans. So I went through customs, got a coke, looked at all the Amsterdam-y things, and accidentally found a bunch of AUC-er's in the Amsterdam airport!

The flight from Amsterdam to Cairo was less of a hassle than the previous one. I sat next to an Egyptian couple, who were absolutely adorable and talked to me near the end of the flight about Cairo and what I was doing and how the man had worked as a tour guide for a little while! As we landed, I got to see the pyramids (barely) and the desert from my plane seat.

Desert from plane seat!

We arrived at Zamalek shortly after, and I found myself thinking that I was just on vacation in another state, in all honesty. I don't think it still has kicked in that I'm thousands of miles away from home, in another country, experiencing another culture! It'll take awhile, I think. Zamalek is gorgeous. It's like a hostel/hotel dorm building and completely amazing! It's across from a church and next to an ambassador's house, near embassies, and is actually named Zamalek because of the area that it's in is called Zamalek, Cairo. It's about a forty minute drive from campus in an A/C, wifi equipped bus!

Sunday night we took a felucca ride down the Nile.

Cairo skyline from the Nile

Monday was the first day of orientation. It was SUPER long. We got lots of freebies, I have an egyptian phone now for emergencies and group meet ups, and I signed up for a couple of days trip to Luxor and Aswan next week during Eid, and a trip on Friday to the Pyramids. Our weekends here because of the faiths are Friday and Saturday. Tuesday we have off classes for campus activity purposes. But yeah. I'm super excited!

We also went to, as part of orientation, Old Cairo to explore, as well as to the Mohamed Ali Mosque, which is GORGEOUS and has his tomb inside (!!!!) and the Citadel. After the visit there, we had dinner and broke fasting for Ramadan with our International Peer Leaders who were fasting with a fantastic sky view of Cairo at night! We also watched some very awesome entertainment!

AUC Campus

Old Cairo Mosque

Mohamed Ali's Tomb

Mohamed Ali Mosque and Citadel

Today was a bunch of orientation things, and we also started our Survival Arabic course! 20 intensive hours of cramming as much arabic to survive in Cairo as possible. I can catch on quickly speaking wise, but understanding what other people say is a problem. At the end of the week, I should be able to be far more proficient! I used some arabic today when we went on the Yacht cruise on the Nile, which was super fun!

I love it here, every aspect of it. Traffic is CRAZY. There are literally no rules. White lines, as the President of AUC said in her speech today, are to be straddled, not go between. The thing is, with everyone driving wherever they want, there isn't any road rage (that I've seen). If a bus gets stuck, or something else happens, like it often does, people will get out of their cars and help. I'll admit we could use a couple of stop signs and more traffic lights (and more active traffic police!), but honestly? When people beep, it's to let other people know that they are coming behind them, or need more room on the side and if they could move over, or something. It's not aggressive! People's cars are dented to hell and back, but they really don't seem to care!

Everyone is so very friendly, that I've met. I'll admit I miss home. And trees. And Gettysburg. And crazy squirrels. But here is just fine for now!

Coming up, FRIDAY - a trip to the Pyramids!

And next week! A few days Eid vacation in Luxor and Aswan (VALLEY OF THE KINGSSS YAAAY!)

P.S. My blog post title this time around is "ana amrekiah" which means, I'm American in arabic!

The beginnings of an adventure...

Through lots of stress and figuring out lots of things, also when I should be packing, I've made it this far! I leave tomorrow for Egypt. My flight takes off at 11:00 and I'm super excited. I'm going to try and keep this as updated as I can, so that way I don't have to send a bazillion emails to everyone and write different versions for different people. However, if you'd like personal one on one communication, I'd be glad to email you! So I'll be staying on AUC's old campus dorms - Zamalek, which is actually a region of downtown Cairo that encompasses some of the island seen below in the Nile river. It's about half an hour away from New Cairo, where AUC is currently located.

Zamalek

New Cairo, AUC Campus

I'm really excited to live in Zamalek and get the best of both areas, both Downtown Cairo, and the New Cairo area. I still am having problems believing that I leave tomorrow morning! I'll admit it fully, I miss Gettysburg a lot and part of me wishes that I was going back to the land of the blue and orange instead of the land of camels and desert. But! I promised many people they'd be getting a camel in the mail and you can't find those in Gettysburg, so it's off I go!

I'm really excited for classes to begin as well. They start September 4th, after my orientation and after a little vacation (possibly to use for travelling?). I'm taking a survival arabic course during orientation that will help me with the language a little. I've been teaching myself a few letters and words as far as writing goes, but pronunciation and word recognition when spoken is... not... very good. Hopefully I'll pick some up! My classes all sound very exciting! I'm taking a Hieroglyphics course, Art & Architecture in Ancient Egypt, Chemistry Art & Archaeology, Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, and Zionism & Modern Judaism! It's a bigger course load than I would be having at Gettysburg, but that's alright with me!

I will keep everyone updated as best as I can, either through this blog, emails, or letters to everyone!

The next time I update, it will be when I'm in Cairo! :)